Millions of jubilant fans turned out on Tuesday to welcome home Argentina\u2019s World Cup winners led by Lionel Messi, but most were left disappointed when an open-top bus parade had to be abandoned due to the massive crowds, in favour of a hastily organised helicopter tour.<\/p>\n
Vast crowds of ecstatic fans cheered on their heroes along every meter of the planned 30-kilometer parade route from a Buenos Aires suburb to the centre of the capital \u2014 but that made for interminably slow progress.<\/p>\n
The bus had crawled along for almost five hours as the throng celebrated the team\u2019s thrilling penalty shoot-out victory over France in the World Cup final, before the decision was made to trade the bus for a chopper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was impossible to continue on the ground due to the explosion of popular joy,\u201d presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
It meant that many fans, including the largest congregation at the iconic Obelisk monument in central Buenos Aires that has for decades been the epicenter of sporting celebrations, did not get to see their idols in the flesh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit sad that we weren\u2019t able to see them,\u201d said Marta Acosta, 35, who traveled into town from a southern suburb at 5:00 am.<\/p>\n
Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), blamed police for the decision to abandon the victory parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not allowing us to go and greet all the people at the Obelisk,\u201d said Tapia on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same security agencies that escorted us are not allowing us to continue. Thousands of apologies in the name of all the champion players. It\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Millions of jubilant fans turned out on Tuesday to welcome home Argentina\u2019s World Cup winners led by Lionel Messi, but most were left disappointed when an open-top bus parade had to be abandoned due to the massive crowds, in favour of a hastily organised helicopter tour. Vast crowds of ecstatic fans cheered on their heroes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-302583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n